Matters Of The Heart

Set in 2017. When Abby and Luka travel back to Chicago for Rachel Green's wedding, a lot of feelings, past and present are put into play. Including those unfinished ones between Carter and Abby. A

I have to finish this in honor of my love for the series :)

Carter found himself reminiscing on his life as he watched Rachel Greene take her first dance as a married woman. 8 years had passed since he'd seen her at County and about to go into an interview with Dr. Banfield, then she'd come and ended up under Morris's watchful eye.

He would catch shifts around but never did make it back to working full time, the Carter Center took much of his time.

"She looks beautiful, doesn't she?" Carol said as she stood next to him.

"She does." Carter agreed. "I still think Mark should be here."

"Of course, he should have," Carol smiled. "But he's always with her in a way, isn't he?"

"She's a good doctor, and will be a great one in due time," Carter said cheekily. Carol noticed they were few of the ones that weren't dancing.

"Do you want to dance Carter? For all time's sake?" Carter smiled. He took her hand in hers, it was a slow dance so Carol allowed herself to enjoy it. "You haven't lost touch I see."

"No, I still have to submit myself to fundraisers from time to time, and my Ganma wouldn't appreciate it if I threw all that good education for nothing."

"Of course." Carol smiled. "So is AJ ready for those?"

"He is charming, I'll tell you that much" John told her. "I think he'll do okay."

"I bet, someone's got to carry on the family tradition huh?" They both turned to the kids on the corner table, all on their phones, which made Carol roll her eyes.

"Hopefully yeah. How about your girls?"

"They both have their minds set on different things, Kate is an artist, and Tess might follow in the family business."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, she's going into premed soon."

"You must be proud," Carter smirked. "AJ is stuck with 3 doctors so it's gonna be a little tougher for him to decide."

"Of course, I love them both the same but they are so different, drive me crazy all the same, and Mark? He's just trying to find his way out of his sister's shadows."

"Tough one huh?"

"He's the sweetest but we had him kind of late so our careers had shifted a little, but he's the best at helping me around the house, I swear..."

Carter laughed. It was so good to be able to feel like he could connect with at least one person, even if Carol had insisted he'd go and apologize to Susan. He'd been kind of a jerk.

"So, you got someone special?" Carol asked. Carter was kind of dreading the direction of their conversation, from kids to divorces and girlfriends, it was usually the other way around.

"Me? Not really, I don't have the time." He admitted.

"Oh, come on. Everyone's got the time, you just gotta make it." Carol smiled. "You and Kem?"

"We didn't...Everything happened so fast in our relationship, including the way we lost Joshua, so it was a matter of not really knowing each other in the end, but we did try."

"Of course."

Carol took another drink from her glass. "You think they'll get drunk?" She said turning to the table where their friends were sitting.

"It's a wedding, who doesn't?"

"AJ?" Tess called from the bathroom. "Are you okay?"

"I told you we shouldn't have left him to drink that, he has asthma!" Tess bellowed beside her, and Reese called up her attention. She really didn't know any sign language.

"AJ! You gotta open the door, are you alive?" Tess said again. "Urgh, we have to go get mom."

"She'll kill us." Her sister said. "Wait, where's Mark?"

Carol was back at the table with Carter and the others when her little boy came into view, truth be told she hadn't seen the kids for a while since they had confiscated all their phones for the remainder of their time outside. The Carter State still stood tall as they had set up the reception in a place that had been practically free for Rachel as Carter had been the first to offer the place up for the party, it sure could use some life back.

"Mark, sweetie...where's everyone?" He wouldn't look up at her and Carol instantly knew something was wrong, Doug did that when he was about to get in trouble too. "Honey, where are your sisters?"

"They are trying to get AJ out of the bathroom." He said quietly. Carol turned her full attention now, she touched Carter's shoulder softly as the table fell silent.

"What do you mean they trying to get him out?" Carol asked again.

"He won't come out, Tess thinks he might be in trouble because of his asthma." He said struggling with the last word.

Carol froze.

AJ cursed under his breath. He was almost fourteen and his parents hadn't left him to have a drink of alcohol in his life, sure his mother was a recovering alcoholic so it was hard to find any of it at home, and Carter who had struggled with addiction himself had left it out too.

As for him? Alcohol mixed with his asthma drugs could be catastrophic as this scenario was proving to be.

"AJ!" He heard either Tess or Kate call. "AJ... open the door, you're freaking me out."

He then heard Ella's voice and what seemed to be other ones coming from the other side.

"AJ, it's Luka...can you slide over to take the lock off?" His voice was calm as his stepdad was in a time of crisis, he was sure Abby was about to run down the door. "Are you near the door?"

"Can you call him?" Susan asked.

"I have his phone. I wanted the kids to have fun without their phones..." Carol said, AJ smiled at the irony.

"Okay, that's it, I'm slamming the door down." AJ heard Benton say. He then heard a loud thud, he was thankful he'd come closer to the toilet just in time for the door would have hit him pretty hard.

He lay down, clutching onto his inhaler as people began to surround him.

"AJ Carter," A voice said behind him. It sounded familiar but he couldn't really place his finger on it. "It's good to see you." AJ turned around to see a boy, he seemed older than him.

"Uncle Bobby?" He'd never fail to recognize him from a picture Carter kept at home. "Oh, man..."

"Yep, that's me."

"Am I in heaven?" He asked.

"Where do you think you are?" Bobby asked.

"Well, you're older than you are in the picture dad has, but you died at 11..."

"You can be any age you would have liked here," Bobby explained.

"So, it is heaven?"

"Could be... What do you think?"

AJ shrugged as he felt a sharp pain on his side.

He felt as air filled his lungs. He was pretty sure he'd just been injected with adrenaline. "Uncle Bobby..."

"AJ? Baby, it's mom, can you hear me?"

What do you think?